Bridge the gap between wellness and fitness.

Tag Archives: progress

Today was so great. SO GREAT. I woke up early and had a huge great breakfast of eggs and spinach and mushrooms, had time to take care of a bunch of stuff, and then went to the noon class. It was small, which was perfect, because today I decided I was going to do unassisted pull-ups. AND I DID. AND THEY FELT GREAT. And Erika, the trainer, told me that I looked really great throughout them, and that I didn’t seem to have any weird imbalances or anything. I DID PULL-UPS AGAIN. Ahhh. SO damn happy. Not only that, but I PR’d my 3RM back squat, and then did it 3 more times.

Strength:

Back Squat 3-3-3-3: 125(PR!)-125-125-125. This is SO amazing. The last time we did Crossfit Total, THIS was my 1RM, and it was barely to full depth, if at all. And I did four full sets of 3 at it today!!! And then early on this year, we did a full cycle of squatting, and I hit a new 1RM of 135, which is INSANE, because that is only 10lbs over this. I am amazed. SO happy. Multiple reps at bodyweight. Hot damn. YES.

WOD for Time: 16:27

4 Rounds of:

10 Burpee Pull-Ups: Rx movement, Level II reps.

200m Farmers’ Carry: 25lb dumbbells, Level I.

A few weeks ago we did a farmers’ carry WOD, and the Level I was with 20s. I did that weight, and almost thought I was going to have to drop down to 15s because my elbow felt weak. I figured out a better way to carry them, and finished out the workout with the 20s. Today, I put 20s on standby, because I was worried that it would fatigue my grip and mess me up on the pull-ups. I did the WHOLE WOD with 25s, AND could still do the burpee pull-ups. I just couldn’t be happier about my performance today. I ran with the dumbbells every round, and only stopped once halfway when I had to. Man, I am just stoked. I’ve come so far and made such great progress, especially over the last three weeks. I just feel so good.

Today is the first day of my summer semester, so I’m starting to settle into a new routine, and I think it’s going to be 8 weeks of greatness. I feel good about this summer. I feel like I’m going to make some serious gains. I’m so excited. Pretty soon I’m going to have to stop tagging my posts with “Injury”!!!

Man, it’s been a LONG LONG LONG time, you guys. A long time. Where have I been? Well, a lot of the usual places. School, my home, my bed, crossfit, my school’s gym. So why haven’t I been posting? That is a very simple answer with a very complicated backstory! Read on for the longest explanation ever. Spoiler alert: there’s blood, bones, injury, emotion, and a shitload of photos, after the break!

YOU GUYS. YOU GUYYYYYYYSSSSSSS. I don’t even care that I didn’t work out hardly at all last week. This is a new week, and I am killing it so far!! PR squat!!!!!

Strength:

Squat 1-1-1-1-1: 125(previous 1RM)-130(PR)-135(SUPER PR)-135(fail)-130. GAAAAAAAAAAD. I am SO HAPPY about this. For some reason, the 125 rep felt so much heavier than the 130 and 135. I think I was off balance or something, because there is no reason for that. I wish I had known that I was going to be able to push that far! I would have done less warming up. I think today I did 5×35, 3×65, 3×85, 2×115, 1×125, then went into the above reps. I definitely would have cut out the 65s and the 115s, and gone for 140. I had no idea they were going to feel that good!!! Ahhhhh. That is 15lbs over my body weight. The last time we did 1RM back squat was for CFT back in…September? October? And I remember my hit at 125 was to a questionable depth, too. Back then, that was ~5lbs under my bodyweight. Ahhhhhh. Such a win.

Complete 6 rounds of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. Do all 6 rounds of one exercise before you move onto the next.

Somehow this was my first time doing any sort of tabata workout. I’ve heard how horrible they are, but man, I really freaking liked this. I always take an extra half-swing on the KBs to get it up overhead the first time, so that took away a rep or two. On the rowing, I kept forgetting to use big, powerful, explosive pulls, and slower recovery going back to the front. I lost some energy/cals there, but overall I’m pretty happy. And..the push-ups..were push-ups..so they were grueling and awful. I was very surprised how sore my arms were from the push-ups going into the KB swings! Even not muscling the KB up and really using my arms merely as straps, my damn forearms were killing me!

I decided to go to the noon WOD today since I slept like crap and knew by 430 I would be facedown on the couch, not wanting to move. It was a huge class, since mostly everyone has off from work/school today. The energy was great, and everyone seemed very happy to have the day off. I love that a day off means still getting into crossfit, and going early, nonetheless. I love this community more than anything. Pr’d my 3rep max back squat, and added a whole TEN POUNDS to last week’s 4 sets of 3!

Strength

Squat 3-3-3-3: 115-115-115-115. PR’s across the board! Last week I did my four sets of 3 at 105, and a bonus set at 110. Going into the WOD today, I couldn’t remember if I had done all sets at 105 or 110, so I just said screw it and went for 115. And I killed it!! The last rep of the last set was the hardest I’ve EVER fought for a lift in my life. My partner, Beth, (who is a total beast, by the way, and extremely motivating) was yelling at me to push my knees out and to get it up, and holy crap, I didn’t think I was going to budge! But I freaking GOT IT. I fought for it, and I freaking got it. I wanted all four sets so badly and I did it. So damn happy.

WOD for Total Cal/Reps: 89 Rx!!!

This was freaking terrrrrible, but so great! I partnered up with Beth for the WOD as well, and she convinced me to go as Rx with the 45lb bar. I definitely would have gone for the Level II at 35lbs if it wasn’t for her. She said “it’s going to feel awful either way,” which was very true, so I decided to just push up and go for maybe a few less reps per round with a higher weight. I am a little disappointed with my rowing, because usually when we do minute-long sprints with equal rest I’m able to stick to 17 or 16 calories each round, but I dipped down in the last round. I guess I just cooked my legs on the heavy thrusters! Also, new bag and shortssssss. Yayayayay! Also very happy to be consistently getting into the box again. I can’t wait for their new location to open only a mile down the road from where I live!

Today was amazing. Wonderful. Victorious. And…very sore. My quads are absolutely killing me from Monday’s WOD, but I decided that I needed to get my butt in there whether I liked it or not, because I really needed to work on my jerks and iron out last week’s issues. And man oh man, am I glad I did!!!

Strength:

Jerk 1-1-1-1-1: (75-85-85-)85-90-90-95-95. This was absolutely amazing. Last week I was, for some reason, terrified of nailing myself in the jaw, and pulling my head way too far back out of the way, and throwing myself off balance. I could barely get 75 up, and failed trying to get 85 up. This week? No sweat. Let me just easily make it up to my previous 1RM for jerks, and feel like I could have gone up much more, had I the time. I put the first three singles in parentheses, because I literally through I’d be staying at 85, so I started counting my set of 5 there. Each one felt amazing, I drove my head through quickly and without hesitation, I was fast on my dip and drive, and all-in-all I did damn well, split jerking each rep. I wanted to get two sets of 95 in, and then really wanted to go for 100, but we ran out of time and I already pushed it with the last single. So happy to have my groove back. I don’t know what was going on previously.

My rounds went 19-19-18-18-18. I can’t count, and wrote 102 on the board today. That’s twice this week I’ve added wrong, post-WOD. Dur. I’m pretty damn happy about this. The longer rest coupled with the explosive, short work periods really allowed me to go balls to the wall, and crush it every single time. My burpees slowed down, but I literally am not even sure how I was able to get 7 full burpees in the first two rounds. For the pullups, I definitely should have tried them with a little weight. Maybe a 5 or 10lb dumbbell between my legs. I was flying through them. I was able to get the first five unbroken every round, and the do the last two as singles. My rhythm was amazing, and I really worked on pushing away from the bar at the top. After the third round I stood there, mouth agape, because of how great my pullups felt. It was awesome. The thrusters were awful, and if my legs weren’t so sore (so sore that I almost didn’t go workout today!!) I would have attempted 65lbs, but 55 kept me in the range of reps that we were supposed to be hitting per round, and I was consistent. Man, this whole workout was so great, and I’m so happy I ended up going!!

I can’t even explain how elated I am about the jerks. It really bummed me out that I was having such weird form issues, because I’m usually really technically proficient, but just lacking the strength to go heavier. But this was all form! So, phew, very happy to not have to deal with that anymore. Also, the box announced the re-opening/re-location of their new sister-box, Potomac Crossfit! It’s exactly one mile from where I live, a 3 minute bike ride, or quick 15 minute walk. I can’t wait for it to open in May!!!

I am officially the worst. I have become so lazy with posting, because life has gotten in the way. But I’m still keeping up going to Crossfit, I just have a hard time motivating myself to write about it. That’s better than the other way around, I guess!

This was early Friday morning, last week. I was exhausted, and hadn’t slept well the previous couple nights. It was just..excruciating. But we do rope climbs in the warmups on Fridays, so that’s always a day brightener.

Strength:

EMOTM for 10 Minutes of:

1 Snatch Balance: 45lbs. I thought there were 2 per round, so I started at 55 but that was too much on my wrists, doing two reps. I realized it only called for 1 rep after I had already switched everything out and couldn’t be bothered to change them back. Easily could have done 55lbs at 1/round.

WOD for Time: 12:32

3 Rounds of:

10 Clean and Jerk: 55lbs. Wish I had been able to do this at 4:30pm. I easily would have been able to go at least 10lbs heavier, but not early in the morning.

15 Bastards: Rx. Bastards and burpees are usually one of my favorite parts of WODs with them. I can fly through them fairly unscathed, but not that day. I was slow and angry and tired and just..not feeling them. Definitely killed my time.

Yesterday was muccchhh better. I felt invigorated, was in a huge class (which I usually hate, but found it enjoyable actually), performed well, kept a good pace, and all-around killed it.

Strength:

Squat 5-5-5-5: 95-95-95-100. Damnit, should have gone for 100 in at least one more set, but we also ran out of time. This was awesome though, and I didn’t feel nearly as beat down as I did by them last week. Progress! And new 5-rep max PR!

WOD for Time: 8:24

Run 800m: Rx. Run felt great, minus the first few steps where my legs were jello from the wallballs. I got confused as to how many laps I’d done, so I figured it would be better to potentially do an extra one than short myself. Turns out I did the right amount, thankfully!

30 Games’ Standard Box Jumps: 16″, Level II. First time cycling box jumps, thanks to the linked video!!! They were so fast!!! So proud of this! I can’t believe how much they speeded up my time, and how much LESS energy they took versus pausing at the bottom to reset and jump up.

Annnnd today was dance class! I was about five minutes late because it was raining and everyone in NOVA forgets how to drive as soon as there is weather, but it was a damn good class. I nailed two really difficult moves, worked on a few spinning dismounts, learned a new fancy climb, and I have alll the bruises to show for it. We worked on spinning pole for a while, and I surprised myself with a few moves that I didn’t think I was strong enough to do! Then I went home, busted out a few moves on my own pole, and took a few videos. So happy! Here’s a quick tiny .gif of Jasmine to Superman! Ugly, but still so excited. Can’t wait for Crossfit tomorrow morning!

I’ve still been having nightly issues with sleeping. Usually I get into bed around 10 or 10:30pm, and then just stare at the ceiling until 2 or 3am. Lately I’ve been trying to stay up until I’m actually tired, and then getting into bed. Well, that just never happens. Last night I stayed up until about midnight, and got into bed. I couldn’t sleep, no big surprise there, and I was really antsy. So I decided to get up and stretch and work on some pole tricks. I went into the room that the pole is in (which I’ve been severely neglecting, outside of the weekly class at the studio) and it was full of bikes and Tyler’s telescope gear, and camping stuff we haven’t gotten a chance to put away yet. I moved a few things around, and was able to do bust out some tricks. I went back into bed around 1:30am, but wasn’t satisfied. Got back up, went back into the pole, and decided I was going to get Superman, before going back to sleep.

I started on the floor and got into it to make sure I could hold it, and I could. I tried getting into it from Star and Inverted Pike, but I just couldn’t get that. I also tried from V-Hold, which I saw on a video online, but couldn’t even successfully get into V-Hold, so bagged that. I started to feel defeated, but then remembered my instructor mentioning you could get into it from Dragonfly if you’re really flexible. And I am. Hm. So I tried it, and lo-and-behold, I fucking got it!!!! I jumped down, did a happy dance, did it again, and then grabbed my camera. By this time it was about 2:30 or 3, so it was dark as shit, and there’s not a lot of light in that room. My camera was dying, so I only had one chance to snap a shot on the timer, and it worked!!!

I am so damn proud of this. There are a lot of little ugly things that I can nit-pick on, but now that I can actually do it, I can start working on making it pretty. I am just absolutely elated. This, plus getting thigh drop back and Bow, has definitely kicked up my confidence, and my desire to get better again. I’m going to be switching classes to the Tuesday morning class with the head instructor at my studio, so I can hopefully work out some kinks I’ve been having. This will also allow me to go to squat days on Mondays at Crossfit! It’s a win all around, really. Yay! Progress!

Today was press day. After last week’s poor performance, I tried desperately not to psych myself out about it, in either direction. On one hand, I felt as if I could absolutely crush it, and hit new PRs, since I’ve been working on pushing stuff all week since. But on the other hand, I was worried that since I didn’t get in as many reps overhead last week that I’d have a hard time getting 55 up again this week as well. I tried to keep a very neutral mind, truly being “okay” with whatever numbers I was going to put up.

Strength:

Strict Press 1-1-1-1-1: 57.5(PR!!)-60(f)-57.5-57.5-57.5-57.5. I’ll take that. I think I got in my head about the 60lbs, thinking “omg, that’s 3lbs away from being half my bodyweight.” I’m hoping that when we do the CFT this weekend I’ll be able to hit 60. We have 3 tries, so I’ll be sure to get a 57.5 in, just incase I can’t get to 60. But the last two 57.5’s weren’t terribly difficult to get up. So hell yes. New PR, and back on track. I’m still going to work on all of the pressing stuff, especially with tomorrow being a rest(aka school) day.

WOD for Time: 12:22

30 Pull-ups: one thin band for assistance, Rx reps, scaled for assist. (Really great video linked, breaking down kipping.)

This WOD was nuts. Probably one of my least favorites, to date. I underestimated how cooked my legs were going to be from the row, so the thrusters were pretty awful, but manageable broken up into 4 sets of 10. And the pull-ups…even though I did a WOD this week (or last week? I can’t remember) that had 10 pull-ups per round for 3 rounds that I did unassisted, that’s very different for me than doing 30 in a row. I did the first couple unassisted and then jumped on a band and could barely get sets of 4 from then on. My elbow is still a little sore from yesterday’s snatches, which I think I determined was from not having a wide enough grip.

#sorryimnotsorry flexing for the camera.

I’m pretty happy that my strength improvements are physically showing on my body, as well as my weights/times at the box. Look at my triceps bulging! But when it comes down to it, I’m exponentially more proud that I was able to press 57.5lbs overhead after the failure I had last week, and that I PR’d my rowing time, and that I am so close to being able to yet another WOD as Rx’d. Also, blogs without pictures are boring, and this helps me document my numerical and physical gains, as well. But seriously guys, so excited about that 2.5lbs PR on the press. That’s about a 5% gain! Wacky. Fingers crossed for 60lbs this weekend!

I went to see my favorite band in DC last night, after finding out about it completely last minute. So glad I randomly checked their website yesterday morning! Anyway, it left me with a really sore neck, so lifting today was a little difficult. But, I missed squat day last week to do a bunch of homework, and this Saturday we’re finding our CFT (Crossfit Total, read about it there!), so I’m hoping to hit a new squat 1rep max then. I missed doing the CFT last September, so I don’t really have a basis of comparison, but I’m pretty excited about it. I have a good idea of where I’ll be, but maybe I’ll get an extra 5 or 10lbs somewhere. I also haven’t deadlifted for strength/weight in about a month. Hopefully one of the WODs this week will incorporate them, at least.

Strength:

Back Squat 1-1-1-1-1: 115(PR!)-115-115-115-115-120(f) I wish I had tried 120 earlier on. I psyched myself out about how difficult it was going to be, failed without hardly trying, and was gassed from the previous sets. Excited I hit 115 though, considering how hard I tried on 8/7 to get 115 and failed miserably, and how great the first rep of 115 felt.

Strict Press 5-5-5: 45-45-45. Just some simple volume with press work. I’ve really been trying to up my press movements lately. Every day I’ve been doing sets of pushups, as well as these crazy negatives, that I can’t even begin to explain.

Also, when I woke up this morning I noticed that Tyler had set up a pull-up bar in one of our doorways!! So excited about this! I jumped up on it this morning and did a strict pull-up UNASSISTED, with just the tiniest of frog-kicks at the top to get my chin over. That felt freaking awesome. Then I threw my laundry in the dryer, came out, and did three more! So great. I just tried a chin-up, and was able to do a rep perfectly strict. What?!?! Where is this back strength coming from all of a sudden!?

On a semi-related note, I weighed myself for the first time in about a month today, out of pure curiosity. I’m down 5.2lbs. My first gut reaction was the reaction that is so heavily ingrained in the female mind that it will be very difficult to ever overcome–“Hell yes!!!” But then I thought about it and that goes against everything that I’m trying to accomplish. I’m trying to gain muscle and get stronger (and in turn, bigger). I’m trying to put on weight, for the first time in my life. I’m going to assume that I’m just cutting fat faster than I’m able to build up muscle mass, because I’m a weeny. And I can assure you that I’m notactively trying to cut fat or lose weight. For example, last Thursday during my emotional meltdown, I ate a bowl of queso and corn chips for lunch, and then half a pint of goat milk ice cream for dinner. Between then and now I’ve had eggs and bacon (or sausage) for breakfast every single morning, a whole sweet potato with bacon grease and 40g of protein in almond milk after every work out, apples with (waaayyyy too much) almond butter for snacks, and some kind of meaty and/or goat-cheesy dinner every day. It’s pretty amazing that my weight is down, come to think of it. This also means that I’m roughly 10lbs away from being able to squat my body weight. Pretty amazing, looking at it that way. I think I’m going to stick to thinking that I’m losing fat faster than I’m gaining muscle, so I don’t bum myself out too much about it. On the one hand, weight loss is kind of cool, but on the other, it’s completely not what I’m working on at the moment. Weird, conflicting feelings!

Oh man oh man oh man. So much greatness so far this week. I’ve been feeling burned out with dance class. On Monday night, I nailed a couple moves that I haven’t been able to get, and I felt really confident throughout the entire class. I’m hoping this wasn’t just a one-time thing. I even got the Jade Split! It didn’t feel like I was completely opened up, but I got it on video and I’m actually way closer to a full split than it felt like I was. Pretty much exactly this:

But I’m just so happy that class went well, I don’t even care that it wasn’t fully open. I held it, and then I came home and did it on my pole at home to show Tyler! I stupidly took the video sideways, so if I can figure out a way to flip it I might post it sometime…maybe..probably not.

Then today at Crossfit I used the 53lbs kettlebell for the first time!!!!! And did all 30 of the pull-ups unassisted!!!

Strength:

EMOTM for 10 Minutes of:

2 Power Snatch: 55lbs. Y.E.S. A few were sketchy and I had two fails, but I redid the reps and felt awesome.

2 Handstand Negatives: Basically the starting point for the handstand push-up. You kick up into a handstand, and then slowly lower yourself down until your head touches the ground (or the abmat, in my case, so I didn’t slam my head into the ground when I got tired). The last 3 rounds were excruciating.

WOD for Time: 6:59

3 Rounds of:

21 Russian Kettlebell Swings: 53lbs, Level II. First time using the 53lb KB!! It was great! Each round I did all 21 unbroken. It definitely wasn’t as hard as I was expecting it to be. A couple of my swings came up well past eye-level. I’m excited to try to use it more now!!!

10 Pull-ups: Level II. I did all 30 pull-ups unassisted. And every rep counted. I’m so happy about this! I also tore the daylights out of my palms on the second round (picture below), so that slowed me down on the last round. But my time was right where the elite-elites’ were, so my scaling was perfect (down from 15 reps as Rx). I went about 4-2-3-1 for all three rounds, AND was able to cycle my kipping perfectly without any extra energy expense. 30 pull-ups is a lot for someone who just recently developed the strength to do them. I’m so happy.

Rest 1 Minute: Rx, boss.

Ouch.

My power snatch was 5lbs higher than last week, I used the 53lb KB for the first time, and I did all pull-ups unassisted, even though I had a band set up on stand-by, incase I couldn’t hang. But I did. And I did awesome. Couldn’t be more impressed with my performance today and last night, especially since I haven’t really been feeling 100% health-wise this week.